Disclaimer: I own none of the
characters from Bubblegum Crisis, they all belong to AIC and ADV, I'm
only borrowing them for awhile. This can also be considered a reboot,
much like 2040 was a reboot of the first series.

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part One

Sylia Stingray sat in the back of the
black limo, her short black hair falling around her face as the young
woman watched traffic race on by on the streets of Tokyo.
Thoughtfully she counted all the cars that had been made by Genom
owned companies but stopped after a minute and already reaching a
hundred. Instead she turned her brown eyes to the paperwork on her
padd, a ultra slim computer evolved from the primitive Blackberry.

Today was the day... after reaching
legal adulthood Sylia was finally gaining ownership of her father's
company, Genom International. Over forty years ago Dr. Katsuhito
Stingray had created the company's greatest product, the artificial
humanoid called Boomer, as well as guided it into becoming one of the
most powerful companies in the globe. Why, Genom's Tokyo tower
itself employed nearly half the sprawling metropolis, and it was only
one of dozens of such facilities all around the world.

The limo pulled up to the base of the
tower and onto the main access ramp, stopping in front of the gate. A
male-type guard boomer scanned their paperwork and the gate opened,
the security force field snapping back on once they drove through.
The car followed the curving road past the lower industrial levels of
the facility and stopped about half way up, where the administrative
levels began.

"Here you go, Miss Stingray," the
male boomer driver in the impeccable black suit said as he opened up
her door.

"Thank you," Sylia said to it with
reflexive politeness, standing in the cool shade provided by the
tower as she watched the regional manager hurry out along with the
soon to be retiring vice president. 'The gate guard must have been
programmed to phone ahead when I arrived,' she thought, amused.

Brian J. Mason pushed back his black
hair as he smiled at her charmingly, the taller man looking just a
little nervous. "Miss Stingray, we weren't expecting you to
arrive so soon," the manager said, "you just got back from
overseas."

'From my years in a foreign boarding
school,' Sylia smiled back calmly, but inside she felt a flash of
annoyance. "I thought it would be good for company confidence if I
showed due diligence," she answered calmly.

"Of course, of course," Quincy
Rosencroitz said quickly, the old man standing straight with the
assistance of metallic braces added to his legs. His voice was strong
for a man in his eighties, too, not reedy like some might be as he
said, "It's good to have you here, Sylia."

'Is this what my father's voice
might sound like now?' Sylia wondered sadly, knowing he had been in
his fifties when he fathered her, having died only six years after.
"Thank you, sir," she answered him respectfully as she continued,
"and thank you for all your efforts watching over the company for
me."

Quincy smiled back a little sadly as
he explained simply, "Why, it was the least I could do for your
father."

Brian looked between the two of them
then smiled nervously as he asked, "Maybe we should go inside?"

Sylia saw the tiredness that Quincy
tried to hide and nodded politely as she answered, "Of course,
let's go in."

Inside the main entrance hall the
whole upper staff of the primary tower had been assembled, mostly
made up of the heads of each division within Genom. Along with Mason
there were reps for Boomers, Autos, Music and entertainment,
computers and other products Genom created. Along with them was the
head of Genom's security force the AD Police, Jeena Malso, who met
her gaze with cool intensity.

Unlike most machines Boomers had a
very low failure rate, only one in a hundred, and most of those
failures were minor. But with the booming business in them the
failures did crop up, and Occasionally proved dangerous. Serving
their primary purpose the AD Police were called in, capturing or
destroying the Boomer as needed.

"Commander Malso," Sylia shook her
hand, "you do good work."

"Thank you," Jeena shook it, the
older woman smiling tightly.

As expected for the arrival of a new
president Sylia gave a short speech, a mix of 'thank you for all
your hard work,' and 'let's do our best together' along with
a bit of 'the future shines brightly on the company as a new era
begins.' It was all cliche but Sylia knew the way the game was
played and played it very well.

"Nicely done, Miss Stingray,"
Mason murmured as he lead her into the elevator and off on a tour of
the facilities.

"I did some reading on this kind of
thing," Sylia admitted as they stopped on the music and
entertainment floor. Headed up by Reika Chang they handled everything
from themes for Genom's commercials to managing a music label that
Genom owned.

The secretary in front of Reika's
office was a attractive brown haired woman with a athletic look about
her, despite the sleek suit she wore. "Miss Stingray, Mr Mason,"
she smiled, her green suit hugging her form as she rose respectfully,
"should I check if Ms Chang is available to see you?"

"No need, Miss Yamazaki," Mason
nodded. Turning to Sylia he said, "Linna Yamazaki is one of our top
executive assistants... in fact I've tried to steal her for myself
many times but she's distressingly loyal."

Linna blushed as she pushed her short
hair back, "You exaggerate, Mr Mason."

"Nice to meet you, Linna," Sylia
nodded, almost unwillingly noting how attractive the slim woman
really was. 'This is not the place or time,' Sylia reminded
herself firmly, 'she works for you.'

The tour took most of the day and
Sylia felt rather annoyed that she couldn't get right down to work.
Still, it was only her first day, and there was plenty of time to
begin on the changes she ultimately planned.

The next few days were spent learning
the lay of the land, primarily studying the computer system. Of
course before now Sylia had access to the Genom mainframes from home,
but only as a standard user. With her ascending to the presidency she
gained unfettered access to the global system and the ability to go
anywhere.

"Isn't that interesting," Sylia
muttered as her hands flew over the keyboard generated in the smooth
surface of her desk. The office on the top floor of the tower was
beautifully decorated and offered a terrific view of the city, but
Sylia's attention was focused on the holographic screen. Again and
again the messages popped up: insufficient access, fatal error and
more.

'This doesn't make sense,' Sylia
mused as she sat back, 'I have root access. There's no way I
can't get into this memory block.'

Archives for Genom were saved every
year, dating back to the year that Genom had been founded. But
mysteriously the memory stored during the year Sulia's father had
died was inaccessible... according to the computer, there was
literally nothing there.

Going through the system directory
Sylia checked with maintenance first, making sure the hard drives
were all still intact. The data had been extracted in the past and
transferred to modern storage, but those high density drives checked
out fine. Once she confirmed that she moved on to step two,
contacting the head of computer services and asking what the status
of the box was.

Lisa Valante was a young woman, very
nearly as young as Sylia, but that wasn't an impediment in the
world of computers. Young people were nearly raised with data access,
and the more talented kids were quickly recognized and shunted into
the correct programs. Lisa was sharper than most prodigies, having
skipped over much of high school and university to pursue a self
constructed program of computer research.

"Easy for you to say," Sylia
answered dryly, "so why can't I get into that unit?"

"It was sealed by a authority higher
than yours, I'd guess," Lisa answered.

Sylia frowned as she sat up, "But
there is no authority higher than mine in Genom!"

"There is one, in theory," Lisa
answered, meeting Sylia's irritated gaze coolly, "your father. If
he ordered it sealed before he died..."

Sylia visibly made herself relax,
sitting back in her chair. "Is there any way to confirm that?"
she asked as she watched the image on the screen.

Lisa gave Sylia a apologetic look as
she answered, "I'll do what I can, but you might need a better
hacker than I am."

"Do you have anyone on staff?"
Sylia asked while also considering her various school mates and
friends.

"Actually, there's someone I
know...," Lisa conceded.

Nene Romanova was not whom Sylia had
been expecting. She was small, redheaded, and oddly irreverent as she
looked around Sylia's office, always wearing her white gloves. She
was a loaner from the AD Police, a officer in their cyber-crime
department. Part of her job involved reconstructing data hacks,
developing quite a talent herself.

"You understand I require
confidentiality on this?" Sylia stressed. "While it's not
forbidden for the president of Genom to pursue this sort of puzzle, a
adversary could use it to imply I'm unstable or unsuitable to
lead."

"Of course," Nene sniffed. She
hesitated as she began to pull off her gloves, "Besides, I can
understand keeping secrets."

Sylia didn't gasp because she was
used to seeing prosthetics on her classmates, especially the
self-styled cyberpunks, but she felt a twinge of surprise at the
clearly visible artificial hands. "Those are Boomer tech," she
noted, "why not get the skin color changed to match yours?"

Nene set herself up using a portable
terminal as she answered, "I had some grey-market interface tech
installed. Using a added layer of false skin might interfere with the
system access filaments." With that she sat by her terminal, tiny
almost invisible strings of material extending from her fingertips to
plug directly to the terminal, data streaming by on the holographic
screen without her pressing a single key.

"I'm impressed," Sylia murmured
as she tried to track Nene's process on her own computer, "maybe
I should get that done."

"I wouldn't," Nene said, eyes
closed as she concentrated, "you can get fired for having this kind
of enhancement." She frowned, "I started out in the regular
Police before they fired me over my hands."

"Their loss was our gain," Sylia
noted.

"Heh," Nene said as the data
streaming by slowed slightly. "Here we go... whoever put this lock
in was a paranoid, it's asking me for multiple word and number
codes. I'm processing now... oh damn!"